SERMONS
ON SELECTED LESSONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

SERMON
I

LI.
BENEDICTINE EDITION

OF
THE AGREEMENT OF THE EVANGELISTS MATTHEW AND LUKE IN THE GENERATIONS
OF THE LORD

1.
MAY He, beloved, fulfil your expectation who hath awakened it: for though
I feel confident
that
what I have to say is not my own, but God's,
yet with far more reason do I say, what the Apostle in his humility saith, "We
have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power
may be of God, and not of us."(1) I do not doubt accordingly that
you remember my promise; in Him I made it through whom I now fulfil it,
for both when I made the promise, did I ask of the Lord, and now when I
fulfil it, do I receive of Him. Now you will remember, beloved, that it
was in the matins of the festival of the Lord's Nativity, that I put off
the question which I had proposed for resolution, because many came with
us to the celebration of the accustomed solemnities of that day to whom
the word of God is usually burdensome; but now I imagine that none have
come here, but they who desire to hear, and so I am not speaking to hearts
that are deaf, and to minds that will disdain the word, but this your longing
expectation is a prayer for me. There is a further consideration; for the
day of the public shows(2) has dispersed many from hence, for whose salvation
I exhort you to share my great anxiety, and do you with all earnestness
of mind, entreat God for those who are not yet intent upon the spectacles
of the truth, but are wholly given up to the spectacles of the flesh; for
I know and am well assured, that there are now among you those who have
this day despised them, and have burst the bonds of their inveterate habits;
for men are changed both for the better and the worse. By daily instances
of this kind are we alternately made joyful and sad i we joy over the reformed,
are sad over the corrupted; and therefore the Lord doth not say that he
who beginneth, shall be saved, "But he that endureth unto the end
shall be saved."(3)

2.
Now what more marvellous, what more magnificent thing could our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
and also the Son of man (for this also He
vouchsafed to be), grant to us, than the gathering into His fold not only
of the spectators of these foolish shows, but even some of the actors in
them; for He hath combated(4) unto salvation not only the lovers of the
combats of men with beasts, but even the combatants themselves, for He
also was made a spectacle Himself. Hear how. He hath told us Himself, and
foretold it before He was made a spectacle, and in the words of prophecy
announced beforehand what was to come to pass, as if it were already done,
saying in the Psalms, "They pierced My hands and My feet, they told
all My bones."(5) Lo! how He was made a spectacle, for His bones to
be told! and this spectacle He expresseth more plainly, "they observed
and looked upon Me." He was made a spectacle and an object of derision,
made a spectacle by them who were to show Him no favour indeed in that
spectacle, but who were to be furious against Him, just as at first He
made His martyrs spectacles; as saith the Apostle, "We are made a
spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men."(6) Now two sorts
of men are spectators of such spectacles; the one, carnal, the other, spiritual
men. The carnal look on, as thinking those martyrs who are thrown to the
beasts, or beheaded, or burnt in the flames, to be wretched men, and they
detest and abhor them; but others look on, like the holy Angels, not regarding
the laceration of their bodies, but admiring the unimpaired purity of their
faith. A grand spectacle to the eyes of the heart doth a whole mind in
a mangled body exhibit! When these things are read of in the church, you
behold them with pleasure with these eyes of the heart, for if you were
to behold nothing, you would hear nothing; so you see you have not neglected
the spectacles to-day, but have made a choice of spectacles. May God then
be with you, and give you grace with gentle persuasiveness to report your
spectacles to your friends, whom you have been pained to see this day running
to the amphitheatre, and unwilling to come to the church; that so they
too may begin to contemn those things, by the love of which themselves
have become contemptible, and may, with you, love God, of whom none who
love Him can ever be ashamed, for that they love Him who cannot be overcome:
let them, as you do, love Christ, who by that very thing wherein He seemed
to be overcome, overcame the whole world. For He hath overcome the whole
world as we see, my brethren; He hath subjected all powers, He hath subjugated
kings, not with the pride of soldiery, but by the ignominy of the Cross:
not by the fury of the sword, but by hanging on the Wood, by suffering
in the body, by working in the Spirit.(1) His body was lifted up on the
Cross, and so He subdued souls to the Cross; and now what jewel in their
diadem is more precious than the Cross of Christ on the foreheads of kings?
In loving Him you will never be ashamed. Whereas from the amphitheatre
how many return conquered, because those are conquered, for whom they are
so madly interested! still more would they be conquered were they to conquer.
For so would they be enslaved to the vain joy, to the exultation of a depraved
desire, who are conquered by the very circumstance of running to these
shows. For how many, my brethren, do you think have this day been in hesitation
whether they would go here or there? And they who in this hesitation, turning
their thoughts to Christ, have run to the church, have overcome, not any
man, but the devil himself, him that hunteth(2) after the souls of the
whole world. But they who in that hesitation have chosen rather to run
to the amphitheatre, have assuredly been overcome by him whom the others
overcame--overcame in Him who saith, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome
the world."(3) For the Captain suffered Himself to be tried, only
that He might teach His soldier to fight.

3.
That our Lord Jesus Christ might do this He became the Son of man by
being born of a woman.
But
now, would He have been any less a man, if He
had not been born of the Virgin Mary" one may say. "He willed
to be a man; well and good; He might have so been, and yet not be born
of a woman; for neither did He make the first man whom He made, of a woman." Now
see what answer I make to this. You say, Why did He choose to be born of
a woman? I answer, Why should He avoid being born of a woman? Granted that
I could not show that He chose to be born of a woman; do you show why He
need have avoided it. But I have already said at other times, that if He
had avoided the womb of a woman, it might have betokened, as it were, that
He could have contracted defilement from her; but by how much He was in
His own substance more incapable of defilement, by so much less had He
cause to fear the woman's womb, as though He could contract defilement
from it. But by being born of a woman, He purposed to show to us some high
mystery.(4) For of a truth, brethren, we grant too, that if the Lord had
willed to become man without being born of a woman, it were easy to His
sovereign Majesty. For as He could be born of a woman without a man, so
could He also have been born without the woman. But this hath He shown
us, that mankind of neither sex might despair of its salvation, for the
human sexes are male and female. If therefore being a man, which it behoved
Him assuredly to be, He had not been born of a woman, women might have
despaired of themselves, as mindful of their first sin, because by a woman
was the first man deceived, and would have thought that they had no hope
at all in Christ. He came therefore as a man to make special choice of
that sex, and was born of a woman to console the female sex, as though
He would address them and say; "That ye may know that no creature
of God is bad, but that(5) unregulated pleasure perverteth it, when in
the beginning I made man, I made them male and female. I do not condemn
the creature which I made. See I have been born a Man, and born of a woman;
it is not then the creature which I made that I condemn, but the sins which
I made not." Let each sex then at once see its honour, and confess
its iniquity, and let them both hope for salvation. The poison to deceive
man was presented him by woman, through woman let salvation for man's recovery
be presented; so let the woman make amends for the sin by which she deceived
the man, by giving birth to Christ. For the same reason again, women were
the first who announced to the Apostles the Resurrection of God. The woman
in Paradise announced death to her husband, and the women in the Church
announced salvation to the men; the Apostles were to announce to the nations
the Resurrection of Christ, the women announced it to the Apostles. Let
no one then reproach Christ with His birth of a woman, by which sex the
Deliverer could not be defiled, and to which it was in the purpose(6) of
the Creator to do honour.(7)

4.
But, say they, "how are we to believe that Christ was born of
a woman?" I would answer, by the Gospel which hath been preached and
is still preached to all the world. But these men, blind themselves, and
aiming to blind others, seeing not what they ought to see, whilst they
try to shake what ought to be believed, endeavour to obtrude a question
on a matter which is now believed through all the earth. For they answer
and say: "Do not think to overwhelm us with the authority of the whole
world--let us look to Scripture itself, urge not arguments of mere(1) numbers
against us, for the seduced multitude favours you." To this I answer,
in the first place, "Does the seduced multitude favour me?" This
multitude was once a scantling. Whence grew this multitude, which in this
increase was announced so long before? For this which hath been seen to
increase, is none other than the same which was seen beforehand. I need
not have said, it was a scantling; once it was Abraham only. Consider,
brethren; it was Abraham alone throughout all the world at that time; throughout
the whole world, among all men, and all nations; Abraham alone to whom
it was said, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed;"(2) and
what he alone believed of his own(3) single person, is exhibited as present
now to many in the multitude of his seed. Then it was not seen, and was
believed; now it is seen, and it is contested; and what was then said to
one man, and was by that one believed, is disputed now by some few, when
in many it is made good. He who made His disciples fishers of men, inclosed
within His nets every kind of authority. If great numbers are to be believed,
what more widely diffused over the whole world than the Church? If the
rich are to be believed, let them consider how many rich He hath taken;
if the poor, let them consider the thousands of poor; if nobles, almost
all the nobility are within the Church; if kings, let them see all of them
subjected to Christ; if the more eloquent, and wise, and learned, let them
see how many orators, and scientific(4) men, and philosophers of this world,
have been caught by those fishermen, to be drawn from the depth to salvation
let them think of Him who, coming down to heal by the example of His own
humility that great evil of maws soul, pride, "chose the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise" (not the really wise, but who seemed
so to be), "and chose the base things of the world, and things which
are not, to bring to nought things that are."(5)

5. "Whatever you may choose to say," they say, "we find
that in the place where we read that Christ was born, the Gospels disagree
with one another, and two things which disagree cannot both be true;" for,
says one, "when I have proved this disagreement, I may rightly disallow
belief in it, or, at least, do you who accept the belief in it, shew the
agreement." And what disagreement, I ask, will you prove? "A
plain one," says he, "which none can gainsay." With what
security, brethren, do you hear all this, because ye are believers! Attend,
dearly beloved, and see what wholesome advice the Apostle gives, who says, "As
ye have therefore received Christ Jesus our Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted
and built up in Him, and established in the faith;"(6) for with this
simple and assured faith ought we to abide stedfastly in Him, that He may
Himself open to the faithful what is hidden in Him; for as the same Apostle
saith, "In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;"(7)
and He does not hide them to refuse them, but to stir up desire for those
hidden things. This is the advantage of their secrecy. Honour in Him then
what as yet thou understandest not, and so much the more as the veils which
thou seest are more in number: for the higher in honour any one is, the
more veils are suspended in his palace. The veils make that which is kept
secret honoured, and to those who honour it, the veils are lifted up; but
as for those who mock at the veils, they are driven away from even approaching
them. Because then we "turn unto Christ, the veil is taken away."(8)

6.
They bring forward then their cavillings,(9) and say "You allow
Matthew is an Evangelist." We answer: Yes indeed, with a godly confession,
and a heart devout, in neither having any doubt at all, we answer plainly,
Matthew is an Evangelist. "Do you believe him?" they say. Who
will not answer, I do? How clear an assent doth that your godly murmur
convey! So, brethren, you believe it in all assurance; you have no cause
to blush for it. I am speaking to you, who was once deceived, when as in
my early boyhood I chose to bring to the divine Scriptures a subtlety of
criticising before the godly temper of one who was seeking truth: by my
irregular(10) life I shut the gate of my Lord against myself: when I should
have knocked for it to be opened, I went on so as to make it more I closely
shut, for I dared to search in pride for that which none but the humble
can discover. How much more blessed now are you, with what sure confidence
do you learn, and in what safety, who are still young ones in the nest
of faith, and receive the spiritual food; whereas I, wretch that I was,
as thinking myself fit to fly, left the nest, and fell down before I flew:
but the Lord of mercy raised me up, that I might not be trodden down to
death by passers by, and put me in the nest again; for those same things
then troubled me, which now in quiet security I am proposing and explaining
to you in the Name of the Lord.

7.
As then I had begun to say, thus do they cavil. "Matthew," say
they, "is an Evangelist, and you believe him?" Immediately that
we acknowledge him to be an Evangelist, we necessarily believe him. Attend
then to the generations of Christ, which Matthew has set down. "The
book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham."(1)
How the Son of David, and the Son of Abraham? He could not be shown to
be so, but by the succession of generations; for certain it is that when
the Lord was born of the Virgin Mary, neither Abraham nor David was in
this world, and dost thou say that the same man is both the Son of David,
and the Son of Abraham? Let us, as it were, say to Matthew, Prove thy word,
for I am waiting for the succession of the generations of Christ. "Abraham
begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;
and Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and
Esrom begat Aram; and Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson;
and Naasson begat Salmon; and Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat
Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; and Jesse begat David the king."(2)
Now observe how from this point the genealogy is brought down from David
to Christ, who is called the Son of Abraham, and the Son of David. "And
David begat Solomon, of her that had been the wife of Urias; and Solomon
begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa; and Asa begat
Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias; and Ozias begat
Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias; and Ezekias
begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias; and Josias
begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away
to Babylon; and after the carrying away into Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel;
and Salathiel begat Zorobabel; and Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat
Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor; and Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat
Achim; and Achim begat Eliud; and Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat
Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Joseph the husband of
Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ." Thus then by
the order and succession of fathers and forefathers, Christ is found to
be the Son of David, and the Son of Abraham.

8.
Now upon this thus faithfully narrated, the first cavil they bring is,
that the same Matthew
goes on
to say, "All the generations from
Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying
away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away
into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations." Then in order
to tell us how Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, he went on and said, "Now
the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise;"(3) for by the line of
the generations he had showed why Christ is called the Son of David, and
the Son of Abraham. But now it needed to be shown how He was born and appeared
among men: and so there follows immediately that narrative, by means of
which we believe that our Lord Jesus Christ was not only born of the everlasting
God, coeternal with Him who begat Him before all times, before all creation,
by whom all things were made; but was also now born from the Holy Ghost,
of the Virgin Mary, which we confess equally with the other; for you remember
and know (for I am speaking to Catholics, to my brethren), that this is
our faith, that this we profess and confess; for this faith thousands of
martyrs have been slain in all the world.

9.
This also which follows they like to laugh at, whose wish it is to destroy
the authority
of the
Evangelical books, that they may show as it
were that we have without any good reason believed what is said, "When
as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she
was found with Child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband being a
just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put
her away privily;"(4) for because he knew that she was not with child
by him, he thought that she was so to say(5) necessarily an adulteress. "Being
a just man," as the Scripture saith," and not willing to make
her a public example," (that is, to divulge the matter, for so it
is in many copies), "he was minded to put her away privily." The
husband indeed was in trouble, but as being a just man he deals not severely;
for so great justice is ascribed to this man, as that he neither wished
to keep an adulterous wife, nor could bring himself(6) to punish and expose
her. "He was minded to put her away privily," because he was
not only unwilling to punish, but even to betray her; and mark his genuine
justice; for he did not wish to spare her, because he had a desire to keep
her; for many spare their adulterous wives through a carnal love, choosing
to keep them even though adulterous, that they may enjoy them through a
carnal desire. But this just man has no wish to keep her, and so does not
love in any carnal sort; and yet he does not wish to punish her; and so
in his mercy he spares her. How truly just a man is this! He would neither
keep an adulteress, lest he should seem to spare her because of an impure
affection, and yet he would not punish or betray her. Deservedly indeed
was he chosen for the witness of his wife's virginity: and so he who was
in trouble through human infirmity, was assured by Divine authority.

10.
For the Evangelist goes on to say, "While he thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in sleep, saying,
Joseph, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife; for That which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Ghost.(1) And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou
shalt call His name Jesus." Why Jesus? "for He shall save His
people from their sins."(2) It is well known then, that "Jesus" in
the Hebrew tongue is in Latin interpreted "Saviour," which we
see from this very explanation of the name; for as if it had been asked, "Why
Jesus?" he subjoined immediately as explaining the reason of the word, "for
He shall save His people from their sins." This then we religiously
believe, this most firmly hold fast, that Christ was born by the Holy Ghost
of the Virgin Mary.

11.
What then do our adversaries say? "If," says one, "I
shall discover a lie, surely you will not then believe it all; and such
I have discovered." Let us see: I will reckon up the generations;
for by their slanderous cavillings they invite and bring us to this. Yes,
if we live religiously, if we believe Christ, if we do not desire to fly
out of the nest before the time, they only bring us to this--to the knowledge
of mysteries. Mark then, holy brethren,(3) the usefulness of heretics;
their usefulness, that is, in respect of the designs of God, who makes
a good use even of those that are bad; whereas, as regards themselves,
the fruit of their own designs is rendered to them, and not that good which
God brings out of them. Just as in the case of Judas; what great good did
he! By the Lord's Passion all nations are saved; but that the Lord might
suffer, Judas betrayed Him. God then both delivers the nations by the Pussion
of His Son, and punishes Judas for his own wickedness. For the mysteries
which lie hid in Scripture, no one who is content with the simplicity of
the faith would curiously sift them, and therefore as no one would sift
them, no one would discover them but for cavillers who force us. For when
heretics cavil, the little ones are disturbed; when disturbed, they make
search, and their search is, so to say, a beating of the head at the mother's
breasts, that they may yield as much milk as is sufficient for these little
ones. They search then, because they are troubled; but they who know and
have learnt these things, because they have investigated them, and God
hath opened to their knocking, they in their turn open to those who are
in trouble. And so it happens that heretics serve usefully for the discovery
of the truth, whilst they cavil to seduce men into error. For with less
carefulness would truth be sought out, if it had not lying adversaries; "For
there must be also heresies among you," and as though we should enquire
the cause, he immediately subjoined, "that they which are approved
may be made manifest among you."(4)

12.
What then is it that they say? "See; Matthew enumerates the generations,
and says, that "from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and
from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations,
and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations." Now
three times fourteen make forty-two; yet they number them, and find them
forty-one generations, and immediately they bring up their cavilling and
their insulting mockery, and say, "What means it, when in the Gospel
it is said that there are three times fourteen generations, yet when they
are numbered all together, they are found to be not forty-two, but forty-one?" Doubtless
there is a great mystery(5) here: and glad are we, and we give thanks unto
the Lord, that by the occasion of cavillers we have discovered something
which gives us in the discovery the more pleasure, in proportion to its
obscurity when it was the object of search; for, as I have said before,
we are exhibiting a spectacle to your minds. From Abraham then to David
are fourteen generations: after that, the enumeration begins with Solomon,
for David begat Solomon; the enumeration, I say, begins with Solomon, and
reaches to Jechonias, during whose life the carrying away into Babylon
took place; and so are there other fourteen generations, by reckoning in
Solomon at the head of the second division, and Jechonias also, with whom
that enumeration closes to fill up the number fourteen; and the third division
begins with this same Jechonias.

13.
Give attention, holy brethren, to this circumstance, at once mysterious
and pleasant;
for I confess
to you the feeling(6) of my own heart, whereby
I believe that when I have brought it forth, and you have got taste of
it, you will give the same report of it. Attend then. In the third division,
beginning from this Jechonias unto the Lord Jesus Christ, are found fourteen
generations; for this Jechonias is reckoned twice, as the last of the former,
and the first of the following division. "But why is Jechonias," one
may say, "reckoned twice?" Nothing took place of old among the
people of Israel, which was not a mysterious figure of things to come:
and indeed it is not without good reason that Jechonias is reckoned twice,
because if there be a boundary between two fields, be it a stone, or any
dividing wall, both he who is on the one side measures up to that same
wall, and he who is on the other takes the beginning of his measurement
again from the same. But why this was not done in the first connecting
link of the divisions, when we number from Abraham to David fourteen generations,
and begin to reckon the fourteen others, not from David over again, but
from Solomon, a reason must be given which contains an important mystery.(1)
Attend then. The carrying away into Babylon took place when Jechonias was
appointed king in the room of his deceased father. The kingdom was taken
from him, and another appointed in his room; still the carrying away unto
the Gentiles took place during the lifetime of Jechonias, for no fault
of Jechonias is mentioned for which he was deprived of the kingdom; but
the sins rather of those who succeeded him are marked out. So then there
follows the Captivity and the passing away into Babylon; and the wicked
do not go alone, but the saints also go with them: for in that Captivity
were the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel, and the Three Children who were cast
into the flames, and so made famous. They all went according to the prophecy
of the prophet Jeremiah.

14.
Remember then, that Jechonias, rejected without any fault of his, ceased
to reign, and
passed over unto
the Gentiles, when the carrying away
unto Babylon took place. Now observe the figure hereby manifested beforehand,
of things to come in the Lord Jesus Christ. For the Jews would not that
our Lord Jesus Christ should reign over them, yet found they no fault in
Him. He was rejected in His own person, and in that of His servants also,
and so they passed over unto the Gentiles as into Babylon in a figure.
For this also did Jeremiah prophesy, that the Lord commanded them to go
into Babylon: and whatever other prophets told the people not to go into
Babylon, them he reproved as false prophets.(2) Let those who read the
Scriptures, remember this as we do; and let those who do not, give us credit.
Jeremiah then on the part of God threatened those who would not go into
Babylon, whereas to them who should go he promised rest there, and a sort
of happiness in the cultivation of their vines, and planting of their gardens,
and the abundance of their fruits. How then does the people of Israel,
not now in figure but in verity, pass over unto Babylon? Whence came the
Apostles? Were they not of the nation of the Jews? Whence came Paul himself?
for he saith, "I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of
the tribe of Benjamin."(3) Many of the Jews then believed in the Lord;
from them were the Apostles chosen; of them were the more than five hundred
brethren, to whom it was vouchsafed(4) to see the Lord after His resurrection;(5)
of them were the hundred and twenty in the house,(6) when the Holy Ghost
came down. But what saith the Apostle in the Acts of the Apostles, when
the Jews refused the word of truth? "We were sent unto you, but seeing
ye have rejected the word of God, lo! we turn unto the Gentiles."(7)
The true passing over then into Babylon, which was then prefigured in the
time of Jeremiah, took place in the spiritual dispensation of the time
of the Lord's Incarnation. But what saith Jeremiah of these Babylonians,
to those who were passing over to them? "For in their peace shall
be your peace."(8) When Israel then passed over also into Babylon
by Christ and the Apostles, that is, when the Gospel came unto the Gentiles,
what saith the Apostle, as though by the mouth of Jeremiah of old? "I
exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions,
and giving of thanks be made for all men. For kings, and for all that are
in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness
and honesty."(9) For they were not yet Christian kings, yet he prayed
for them. Israel then praying in Babylon hath been heard; the prayers of
the Church have been heard, and the kings have become Christian, and you
see now fulfilled what was then spoken in figure; "In their peace
shall be your peace," for they have received the peace of Christ,
and have left off to persecute Christians, that now in the secure quiet
of peace, the Churches might be built up, and peoples planted in the garden(10)
of God, and that all nations might bring forth fruit in faith, and hope,
and love, which is in Christ.

15.
The carrying away into Babylon took place of old by Jechonias, who was
not permitted to
reign
in the nation of the Jews, as a type of Christ,
whom the Jews would not have reign over them. Israel passed over unto the
Gentiles, that is, the preachers of the Gospel passed over unto the people
of the Gentiles. What marvel then, that Jechonias is reckoned twice? for
if he were a figure of Christ passing over from the Jews unto the Gentiles,
consider only what Christ is between the Jews and Gentiles. Is He not that
Corner-stone? In a corner-stone you see the end of one wall, and the beginning
of another; up to that stone you measure one wall, and another from it;
therefore the corner-stone which connects both walls is reckoned twice.
Jechonias then as prefiguring the Lord was, as it were, a type of the corner-stone;
and as Jechonias was not permitted to reign over the Jews, but they went
unto Babylon, so Christ, "the stone which the builders rejected, is
made the head of the corner,"(1) that the Gospel might reach unto
the Gentiles. Hesitate not then to reckon the head of the corner twice,
and you have at once the number written: and so there are fourteen in each
of the three divisions, yet altogether the generations are not forty-two,
but forty-one; for as when the order of the stones runs in a straight line,
they are all reckoned but once, but when there is a deviation from the
straight line to make an angle, that stone at which the deviation begins
must be reckoned twice, because it belongs at once to that line which is
finished at it, and to that other line which begins from it; so as long
as the order of the generations continued in the Jewish people, it made
no angle in the regular division of fourteen; but when the line was turned
that the people might pass over into Babylon, a sort of angle as it were
was made at Jechonias, so that it was necessary to reckon him twice, as
the type of that adorable Corner-stone.

16.
They have another cavil. "The generations of Christ," say
they, "are numbered through Joseph, and not through Mar." Attend
awhile, holy brethren. "It ought not to be," they say, "through
Joseph." And why not? Was not joseph the husband of Mary? "No," they
say. Who says so? For the Scripture saith by the authority of the Angel
that he was her husband. "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife,
for That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost."(2) Again,
he was commanded to name the Child, though He was not born of his seed; "She
shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus."(3) Now
the Scripture is intent on showing, that He was not born of Joseph's seed,
when he is told in his trouble as to her being with child," He is
of the Holy Ghost;" and yet his paternal authority is not taken from
him, forasmuch as he is commanded to name the Child; and again the Virgin
Mary herself, who was well aware that it was not by him that she conceived
Christ, yet calls him the father of Christ.

17.
Consider when this was. When the Lord Jesus, as to His Human Nature,
was twelve years
old(4)
(for as to His Divine Nature He is before all times,
and without time), He tarried behind them in the temple, and disputed with
the elders, and they wondered at His doctrine; and His parents who were
returning from Jerusalem sought Him among their company, among those, that
is, who were journeying with them, and when they found Him not, they returned
in trouble to Jerusalem, and found Him disputing in the temple with the
elders, when He was, as I said, twelve years old. But what wonder? The
Word of God is never silent, though it is not always heard. He is found
then in the temple, and His mother saith to Him, "Why hast Thou thus
dealt with us? Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing;" and He
said, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's service?"(5)
This He said for that the Son of God was in the temple of God, for that
temple was not Joseph's, but God's. See, says some one, "He did not
allow that He was the Son of Joseph." Wait, brethren, with a little
patience, because of the press of time, that it may be long enough for
what I have to say. When Mary had said, "Thy father and I have sought
Thee sorrowing," He answered, "Wist ye not that I must be about
My Father's service?" for He would not be their Son in such a sense,
as not to be understood to be also the Son of God. For the Son of God He
was--ever the Son of God--Creator even of themselves who spake to Him;
but the Son of Man in time; born of a Virgin without the operation of her
husband, yet the Son of both parents. Whence prove we this? Already have
we proved it by the words of Mary, "Thy father and I have sought Thee
sorrowing."

18.
Now in the first place for the instruction of the women, our sisters,
such saintly modesty
of
the Virgin Mary must not be passed over, brethren.
She had given birth to Christ--the Angel had come to her, and said, "Behold,
thou shall conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call
His name Jesus.(6) He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the
Highest."(7) She(8) had been thought worthy to give birth to the Son
of the Highest, yet was she most humble; nor did she put herself before
her husband, even in the order of naming him, so as to say," I and
Thy father," but she saith, "Thy father and I." She regarded
not the high honour(9) of her womb, but the order of wedlock did she regard,
for Christ the humble would not have taught His mother to be proud. "Thy
father and I have sought Thee sorrowing." Thy father and I, she saith, "for
the husband is the head of the woman."(10) How much less then ought
other women to be proud! for Mary herself also is called a woman, not from
the loss of virginity, but by a form of expression peculiar to her country;
for of the Lord Jesus the Apostle also said, "made of a woman,"(11)
yet there is no interruption hence to the order and connection of our Creed(12)
wherein we confess "that He was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin
Mary." For as a virgin she conceived Him, as a virgin brought Him
forth, and a virgin she continued; but all females they called "women,"(1)
by a peculiarity of the Hebrew tongue. Hear a most plain example of this.
The first woman whom God made, having taken her out of the side of a man,
was called a woman before she "knew" her husband, which we are
told was not till after they went out of Paradise, for the Scripture saith, "He
made her a woman."(2)

19.
The answer then of the Lord Jesus Christ, "I must be about My
Father's service," does not in such sense declare God to be His Father,
as to deny that Joseph was His father also; And whence prove we this? By
the Scripture, which saith on this wise, "And He said unto them, Wist
ye not that I must be about My Father's service; but they understood not
what He spake to them: and when He went down with them, He came to Nazareth,
and was subject to them."(3) It did not say, "He was subject
to His mother," or was "subject to her," but "He was
subject to them." To whom was He subject? was it not to His parents?
It was to both His parents that He was subject, by the same condescension
by which He was the Son of Man. A little way back women received their
precepts. Now let children receive theirs--to obey their parents, and to
be subject to them. The world was subject unto Christ, and Christ was subject
to His parents.

20.
You see then, brethren, that He did not say, "I must needs be
about My Father's service," in any such sense as that we should understand
Him thereby to have said, "You are not My parents." They were
His parents in time, God was His Father eternally. They were the parents
of the Son of Man--"He," the Father of His Word, and Wisdom,
and Power, by whom He made all things. But if all things were made by that
Wisdom, "which reacheth from one end to another mightily, and sweetly
ordereth all things,"(4) then were they also made by the Son of God
to whom He Himself as Son of Man was afterwards to be subject; and the
Apostle says that He is the Son of David, "who was made of the seed
of David according to the flesh."(5) But yet the Lord Himself proposes
a question to the Jews, which the Apostle solves in these very words; for
when he said, "who was made of the seed of David," he added, "according
to the flesh," that it might be understood that He is not the Son
of David according to His Divinity, but that the Son of God is David's
Lord; for thus in another place, when He is setting forth the(6) privileges
of the Jewish people, the Apostle saith, "Whose are the fathers, of
whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, Who is over all, God blessed
for ever."(7) As, "according to the flesh," He is David's
Son; but as being "God over all, blessed for ever," He is David's
Lord. The Lord then saith to the Jews, "Whose Son say ye that Christ
is?" They answered, "The Son of David."(8) For this they
knew, as they had learnt it easily from the preaching of the Prophets;
and in truth, He was of the seed of David, "but according to the flesh," by
the Virgin Mary, who was espoused to Joseph. When they answered then that
Christ was David's Son, Jesus said to them, "How then doth David in
spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My
fight hand, till I put Thine enemies under Thy feet.(9) If David then in
spirit call Him Lord, how is He his Son?"(10) And the Jews could not
answer Him. So we have it in the Gospel. He did not deny that He was David's
Son, so that they could not understand that He was also David's Lord. For
they acknowledged in Christ that which He became in time, but they did
not understand in Him what He was in all eternity. Wherefore wishing to
teach them His Divinity, He proposed a question touching His Humanity;
as though He would say, "You know that Christ is David's Son, answer
Me, how He is also David's Lord?" And that they might not say, "He
is not David's Lord," He introduced the testimony of David himself.
And what doth he say? He saith indeed the truth. For you find God in the
Psalms saying to David, "Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon
thy seat."(11) Here then He is the Son of David. But how is He the
Lord of David, who is David's Son? "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit
Thou on My right hand."(9) Can you wonder that David's Son is his
Lord, when you see that Mary was the mother of her Lord? He is David's
Lord then as being God. David's Lord, as being Lord of all; and David's
Son, as being the Son of Man. At once Lord and Son. David's Lord, "who,
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God;"(12)
and David's Son, in that "He emptied Himself, taking the form of a
servant."(13)

21.
Joseph then was not the less His father, because he knew not the mother
of our Lord,
as though
concupiscence and not conjugal affection constitutes
the marriage bond.(14) Attend, holy brethren; Christ's Apostle was some
time after this to say in the Church, "It remaineth that they that
have wives be as though they had none."(15) And we know many of our
brethren bringing forth fruit through grace, who for the Name of Christ
practise an entire restraint by mutual consent, who yet suffer no restraint
of true conjugal affection. Yea, the more the former is repressed, the
more is the other strengthened and confirmed. Are they then not married
people who thus live, not requiring from each other any carnal gratification,
or exacting the satisfaction(1) of any bodily desire? And yet the wife
is subject to the husband, because it is fitting that she should be, and
so much the more in subjection is she, in proportion to her greater chastity;
and the husband for his part loveth his wife truly, as it is written, "In
honour and sanctification,"(2) as a coheir of grace: as "Christ," saith
the Apostle, "loved the Church."(3) If then this be a union,
and a marriage; if it be not the less a marriage because nothing of that
kind passes between them, which even with unmarried persons may take place,
but then unlawfully; (O that all could live so, but many have not the power!)
let them at least not separate those who have the power, and deny that
the man is a husband or the woman a wife, because there is no fleshly intercourse,
but only the union of hearts between them.

22.
Hence, my brethren, understand the sense of Scripture concerning those
our ancient fathers,
whose sole
design in their marriage was to have children
by their wives. For those even who, according to the custom of their time
and nation, had a plurality of wives, lived in such chastity with them,
as not to approach their bed, but for the cause I have mentioned, thus
treating them indeed with honour. But he who exceeds the limits which this
rule prescribes for the fulfilment of this end of marriage, acts contrary
to the very contract(4) by which he took his wife. The contract is read,
read in the presence of all the attesting witnesses; and an express clause
is there that they marry "for the procreation of children;" and
this is called the marriage contract.(5) If it was not for this that wives
were given and taken to wife, what father could without blushing give up
his daughter to the lust of any man But now, that the parents may not blush,
and that they may give their daughters in honourable marriage, not to shame,(6)
the contract is read out. And what is read from it?--the clause, "for
the sake of the procreation of children." And when this is heard,
the brow of the parent is cleared up and calmed. Let us consider again
the feelings(7) of the husband who takes his wife. The husband himself
would blush to receive her with any other view, if the father would blush
with any other view to give her. Nevertheless, if they cannot contain (as
I have said on other occasions), let them require what is due, and let
them not go to any others than those from whom it is due. Let both the
woman and the man seek relief for their infirmity in themselves. Let not
the husband go to any other woman, nor the woman to any other man, for
from this adultery gets its name, as though it were "a going to another."(8)
And if they exceed the bounds of the marriage contract, let them not at
least exceed those of conjugal fidelity. Is it not a sin in married persons
to exact from one another more than this design of the "procreation
of children" renders necessary? It is doubtless a sin, though a venial
one. The Apostle saith, "But I speak this of allowance,"(9) when
he was treating the matter thus. "Defraud ye not one the other, except
it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and
prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency."(10)
What does this mean? That you do not impose. upon yourselves any thing
beyond your strength, that you do not by your mutual continence fall into
adultery. "That Satan tempt you not for your incontinency." And
that he might not seem to enjoin what he only allowed (for it is one thing
to give precepts to strength of virtue, and another to make allowance to
infirmity), he immediately subjoined; "But this I speak of allowance,
not of commandment. For I would that all men were even as I myself." As
though he would say, I do not command you to do this; but I pardon you
if you do.

23.
So then, my brethren, give heed. Those famous men who marry wives only
for the procreation
of children,
such as we read the Patriarchs to
have been, and know it, by many proofs, by the clear and unequivocal testimony
of the sacred books; whoever, I say, they are who marry wives for this
purpose only, if the means could be given them of having children without
intercourse with their wives, would they not with joy unspeakable embrace
so great a blessing? would they not with great delight accept it? For there
are two carnal operations by which mankind is preserved, to both of which
the wise and holy descend as matter of duty, but the unwise rush headlong
into them through lust; and these are very different things. Now what are
these two things by which mankind is preserved? The first which is confined
to ourselves and relates to taking nourishment (which cannot of course
be taken without some gratification of the flesh), is eating and drinking;
if you do not this you will die. By this one support then of eating and
drinking does the race of man subsist, by a(11) law of its nature. But
by this men are only supported as far as themselves are concerned; for
they do not provide for any succession by eating and drinking, but by marrying
wives. For so is the race of man preserved; first, by the means of life;
but because whatever care they exercise they cannot of course live for
ever, there is a second provision made, that those who are newly born may
replace those who die. For the race of man is, as it is written, like the
leaves on a tree, or an olive, that is, or a laurel, or some tree of this
sort, which is never without foliage, yet whose leaves are not always the
same.(1) For, as it is written, "it shooteth forth some, and casteth
others," because those which sprout afresh replace the others as they
fall, for the tree is ever casting its leaves, yet is ever clothed with
leaves. So also the race of man feels not the loss of those who die day
by day, because of the supply of those who are newly born; and thus the
whole race of mankind is according to its own laws sustained, and as leaves
are ever seen on the trees, so is the earth seen to be full of men. Whereas
if they were only to die, and no fresh ones be born, the earth would be
stripped of all its inhabitants, as certain trees are of all their leaves.

24.
Seeing then that the human race subsists in such sort, as that those
two supports, of
which enough
has now been said, are necessary to it, the
wise, and understanding, and the faithful man descends to both as matter
of duty, and does not fall into them through lust. But how many are there
who rush greedily to their eating and drinking, and make their whole life
to consist in them, as if they were the very reason for living. For whereas
men really eat to live, they think that they live to eat. These will every
wise man condemn, and holy Scripture especially, all gluttons, drunkards,
gormandizers, "whose god is their belly."(2) Nothing but the
lust of the flesh, and not the need of refreshment, carries them to the
table. These then fall upon their meat and drink. But they who descend
to them from the duty of maintaining life, do not live to eat, but eat
to live. Accordingly, if the offer were made to these wise and temperate
persons that they should live without food or drink, with what great joy
would they embrace the boon! that now they might not even be forced to
descend to that into which it had never been their custom to fall, but
that they might be lifted up always in the Lord, and no necessity of repairing
the wastings of their body might make them lay aside their fixed attention
towards Him. How think ye that the holy Elias received the cruse of water,
and the cake of bread, to satisfy him for forty days?(3) With great joy
no doubt, because he eat and drank to live, and not to serve his lust.
But try to bring this about, if you could, for a man who, like the beast
in his stall, places his whole blessedness and happiness in the table.
He would hate your boon, and thrust it from him, and look upon it as a
punishment. And so in that other duty of marriage, sensual men seek for
wives only to satisfy their sensuality, and therefore at length are scarce
contented even with their wives. And oh! I would that if they cannot or
will not cure their sensuality, they would not suffer it to go beyond that
limit which conjugal duty prescribes, I mean even that which is granted
to infirmity. Nevertheless, if you were to say to such a man, "why
do you marry?" he would answer perhaps for very shame, "for the
sake of children." But if any one in whom he could have unhesitating
credit were to say to him, "God is able to give, and yea, and will
give you children without your having any intercourse with your wife;" he
would assuredly be driven to confess that it was not for the sake of children
that he was seeking for a wife. Let him then acknowledge his infirmity,
and so receive that which he pretended to receive only as matter of duty.

25. It was thus those holy men of former times, those men of God sought
and wished for children. For this one end--the procreation of children,
was their intercourse and union with their wives. It is for this reason
that they were allowed to have a plurality of wives. For if immoderateness
in these desires could be well-pleasing to God, it would have been as much
allowed at that time for one woman to have many husbands, as one husband
many wives. Why then had all chaste women no more than one husband, but
one man had many wives, except that for one man to have many wives is a
means to the multiplication of a family, whereas a woman would not give
birth to more children, how many soever more husbands she might have. Wherefore,
brethren, if our fathers(1) union and intercourse with their wives, was
for no other end but the procreation of children, it had been great matter
of joy to them, if they could have had children without that intercourse,
since for the sake of having them they descended to that intercourse only
through duty, and did not rush into it through lust. So then was Joseph
not a father because he had gotten a son without any lust of the flesh?
God forbid that Christian chastity should entertain a thought, which even
Jewish chastity entertained not! Love your wives then, but love them chastely.
In your intercourse with them keep yourselves within the bounds necessary
for the procreation of children. And inasmuch as you cannot otherwise have
them, descend to it with regret. For this necessity is the punishment of
that Adam from whom we are sprung. Let us not make a pride of our punishment.
It is his punishment who because he was made mortal by sin, was condemned(4)
to bring forth only a mortal posterity. This punishment God has not withdrawn,
that man might remember from what state he is called away, and to what
state he is called, and might seek for that union, in which there can be
no corruption.

26. Among that people then, because it was necessary that there should
be an abundant increase until Christ came, by the multiplication of that
people in whom were to be prefigured all that was to be prefigured as instruction
for the Church, it was a duty to marry wives, by means of whom that people
in whom the Church should be foreshown might increase. But when the King
of all nations Himself was born, then began the honour of virginity with
the mother of the Lord, who had the privilege(1) of bearing a Son without
any loss of her virgin purity. As that then was a true marriage, and a
marriage free from all corruption, so why should not the husband chastely
receive what his wife had chastely brought forth? For as she was a wife
in chastity, so was he in chastity a husband; and as she was in chastity
a mother, so was he in chastity a father. Whoso then says that he ought
not to be called father, because he did not beget his Son in the usual(2)
way, looks rather to the satisfaction of passion in the procreation of
children, and not the natural feeling of affection. What others desire
to fulfil in the flesh, he in a more excellent way fulfilled in the spirit.
For thus they who adopt children, beget them by the heart in greater chastity,
whom they cannot by the flesh beget. Consider, brethren, the laws of adoption;
how a man comes to be the son of another, of whom he was not born, so that
the choice of the person who adopts has more right in him than the nature
of him who begets him has. Not only then must Joseph be a father, but in
a most excellent manner a father. For men beget children of women also
who are not their wives, and they are called natural children, and the
children of the lawful marriage are placed above them. Now as to the manner
of their birth, they are born alike; why then are the latter set above
the other, but because the love of a wife, of whom children are born, is
the more pure. The union of the sexes is not regarded in this case, for
this is the same in both women. Where has the wife the pre-eminence but
in her fidelity, her wedded love, her more true and pure affection? If
then a man could have children by his wife without this intercourse, should
he not have so much the more joy thereby, in proportion to the greater
chastity of her whom he loves the most?

27. See too by this how it may happen, that one man may have not two sons
only, but two fathers also. For by the mention of adoption, it may occur
to your thoughts that so it may be. For it is said; A man can have two
sons, but two fathers he cannot have. But the truth is, it is found that
he can have two fathers also, if one have begotten him of his body, and
another adopted him in love. If one man then can have two fathers, Joseph
could have two fathers also; might be begotten by one, and adopted by another.
And if this be so, what do their cavillings mean, who insist that Matthew
has followed one set of generations, and Luke another? And in fact we find
that so it is, for Matthew has given Jacob as the father of Joseph, and
Luke Heli. Now it is true it might seem, as if one and the same man, whose
son Joseph was, had two names. But inasmuch as the grandfathers, and all
the other progenitors which they enumerate, are different, and in the very
number of the generations, the one has more, and the other fewer, Joseph
is plainly shown hereby to have had two fathers. Now having disposed of
the cavil of this question, forasmuch as clear reason has shown that it
may happen that he who has begotten a child may be one father, and he who
has adopted him another: supposing two fathers, it is nothing strange if
the grandfathers and the great grandfathers, and the rest in the line upwards
which are enumerated, should be different as coming from different fathers.

28.
And let not the law of adoption seem to you to be foreign to our Scriptures,
and that,
as if
it were recognised(3) only in the practice of I human laws,
it cannot fall in with the authority of the divine books. For it is a thing
established of old time, and frequently heard of in the Ecclesiastical
books(4)--that not only the natural way of birth, but the free choice s
of the will also, should give birth to a child. For women, if they had
no children of their own, used to adopt children born of their husbands
by their hand-maids, and even oblige their husbands to give them children
in this way; as Sarah, Rachel, and Leah.(6) And in doing this the husbands
did not commit adultery, in that they obeyed their wives in that matter
which had regard to conjugal duty, according to what the Apostle saith: "The
wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband; and likewise also
the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife."(7) Moses
too, who was born of a Hebrew mother and was exposed, was adopted by Pharaoh's
daughter.(8) There were not then indeed the same forms of law as now, but
the choice of the will was taken for the rule of law, as the Apostle saith
also in another place, "The Gentiles which have not the law, do by
nature the things contained in the law."(9) But if it is permitted
to women to make those their children to whom they have not given birth,
why should it not be allowed men to do so too with those whom they have
not begotten of their body, but of the love of adoption. For we read that
the patriarch Jacob even, the father of so many children, made his grandchildren,
the sons of Joseph, his own children, in these words: "These too shall
be mine, and they shall receive the land with their brethren, and those
which thou begettest after them shall be thine."(1) But it will be
said, perhaps, that this word "adoption" is not found in the
Holy Scriptures. As though it were of any importance by what name it is
called, when the thing itself is there--for a woman to have a child to
whom she has not given birth, or a man a child whom he has not begotten.
And he may, without any opposition from me, refuse to call Joseph adopted,
provided he grant that he may have been the son of a man of whose body
he was not born. Yet the Apostle Paul does continually use this very word "adoption," and(2)
that to express a great mystery. For though Scripture testifies that our
Lord Jesus Christ is the only Son of God, it says, that the brethren and
coheirs whom He hath vouchsafed to have, are made so by a kind of adoption
through Divine grace. "When," saith he, "the fulness of
time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the
adoption of sons."(3) And in another place: "We groan within
ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."(4)
And again, when he was speaking of the Jews, "I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the
flesh; who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory,
and the testaments, and the giving of the law; whose are the fathers, and
of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, Who is over all, God blessed
for ever."(5) Where he shows, that the word "adoption," or
at least the thing which it signifies, was of ancient use among the Jews,
just as was the Testament and the giving of the Law, which he mentions
together with it.

29.
Added to this; there is another way peculiar to the Jews, in which a
man might be the
son of
another of whom he was not born according to
the flesh. For kinsmen used to marry the wives of their next of kin, who
died without children, to raise up seed to him that was deceased.(6) So
then he who was thus born was both his son of whom he was born, and his
in whose line of succession he was born. All this has been said, lest any
one, thinking it impossible for two fathers to be mentioned properly for
one man, should imagine that either of the Evangelists who have narrated
the generations of the Lord are to be, by an impious calumny, charged so
to say with a lie; especially when we may see that we are warned against
this by their very words. For Matthew, who is understood to make mention
of that father of whom Joseph was born, enumerates the generations thus: "This
one begat the other," so as to come to what he says at the end, "Jacob
begat Joseph." But Luke--because he cannot properly be said to be
begotten who is made a child either by adoption, or who is born in the
succession of the deceased, of her who was his wife--did not say, "Heli
begat Joseph," or "Joseph whom Hell begat," but "Who
was the son of Heli," whether by adoption, or as being born of the
next of kin in the succession of one deceased.(7)

30.
Enough has now been said to show that the question, why the generations
are reckoned
through Joseph
and not through Mary, ought not to perplex
us; for as she was a mother without carnal desire, so was he a father without
any carnal intercourse. Let then the generations ascend and descend through
him. And let us not exclude him from being a father, because he had none
of this carnal desire. Let his greater purity only confirm rather his relationship
of father, lest the holy Mary herself reproach us. For she would not put
her own name before her husband; but said, "Thy father and I have
sought Thee sorrowing."(8) Let not then these perverse murmurers do
that which the chaste spouse of Joseph did not. Let us reckon then through
Joseph, because as he is in chastity a husband, so is he in chastity a
father. And let us put the man before the woman, according to the order
of nature and the law of God For if we should cast him aside and leave
her, he would say, and say with reason, "Why have you excluded me?
Why do not the generations ascend and descend through me?" Shall we
say to him, "Because thou didst not beget Him by the operation of
thy flesh?" Surely he will answer, "And is it by the operation
of the flesh that the Virgin bare Him? What the Holy Spirit wrought, He
wrought for both." "Being a just man,"(1) saith the Gospel.
The husband then was just and the woman just. The Holy Spirit reposing
in the justice of them both, gave to both a Son. In that sex which is by
nature fitted to give birth, He wrought that birth which was for the husband
also. And therefore doth the Angel bid them both give the Child a name,
and hereby is the authority of both parents established. For when Zacharias
was yet dumb, the mother gave a name to her newborn son. And when they
who were present "made signs to his father what he would have him
called, he took a writing-table and wrote"(2)) the name which she
had already pronounced. So to Mary too the Angel saith, "Behold, thou
shalt conceive a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus."(3) And to Joseph
also he saith, "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee
Mary thy wife; for That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus, for
He shall save His people from their sins."(4) Again it is said, "And
she brought forth a Son to him," s by which he is established to be
a father, not in the flesh indeed, but in love. Let us then acknowledge
him to be a father, as in truth he is. For most advisedly and most wisely
do the Evangelists reckon through him, whether Matthew in descending from
Abraham down to Christ, or Luke in ascending from Christ through Abraham
up to God. The one reckons in a descending, the other in an ascending order;
but both through Joseph. And why? Because he is the father. How the father?
Because he is the more undeniably(6) a father in proportion as he is more
chastely so. He was thought, it is true, to be the father of our Lord Jesus
Christ in another way: that is, as other parents are according to a fleshly
birth, and not through the fruitfulness of a wholly spiritual love. For
Luke said, "Who was supposed to be the father of Jesus."(7) Why
supposed? Because men's thoughts and suppositions were directed to what
is usually the case with men. The Lord then was not of the seed of Joseph,
though He was supposed to be; yet nevertheless the Son of the Virgin Mary,
who is also the Son of God, was born to Joseph, the fruit of his piety
and love.

31. But why does St Matthew reckon in a descending, and Luke in an ascending
order? I pray you give attentive ear to what the Lord may help me to say
on this matter; with your minds now at ease, and disembarrassed from all
the perplexity of these cavillings. Matthew descends through his generations,
to signify our Lord Jesus Christ descending to bear our sins, that in the
seed of Abraham all nations might be blessed. Wherefore, he does not begin
with Adam, for from him is the whole race of mankind. Nor with Noe, because
from his family again, after the flood, descended the whole human race.
Nor could the man Christ Jesus, as descended from Adam, from whom all men
are descended, bear(8) upon the fulfilment of prophecy; nor, again, as
descended from Noe, from whom also all men are descended; but only as descended
from Abraham, who at that time was chosen, that all nations should be blessed
in his seed, when the earth was now full of nations. But Luke reckons in
an ascending order, and does not begin to enumerate the generations from
the beginning of the account of our Lord's birth, but from that place,
where he relates His Baptism by John. Now, as in the incarnation of the
Lord, the sins of the human race are taken upon Him to be borne, so in
the consecration of His Baptism are they taken on Him to be expiated. Accordingly,
St. Matthew, as representing His descent to bear our sins, enumerates the
generations in a descending order; but the other, as representing the expiation
of sins, not His own, of course, but our sins, enumerates them in an ascending
order. Again, St. Matthew descends through Solomon, by whose mother David
sinned; St. Luke ascends through Nathan(9) another son of the same David,
through whom he was purged from his sin.(10) For we read, that Nathan was
sent to him to reprove him, and that he might through repentance be healed.
Both Evangelists meet together in David; the one in descending, the other
in ascending; and from David to Abraham, or from Abraham to David, there
is no difference in any one generation. And so Christ, both the Son of
David and the Son of Abraham, comes up to God. For to God must we be brought
back, when renewed in Baptism, from the abolition of sins.

32.
Now, in the generations which Matthew enumerates, the predominant" number
is forty. For it is a custom of the Holy Scriptures, not to reckon what
is over and above certain round numbers.(12) For thus it is said to be
four hundred years, after which the people of Israel went out of Egypt,
whereas it is four hundred and thirty.(13) And so here the one generation,
which exceeds the fortieth, does not take away the predominance of that
number. Now this number signifies the life wherein we labour in this world,
as long as we are absent from the Lord, during which the temporal dispensation
of the preaching of the truth is necessary. For the number ten, by which
the perfection of blessedness is signified, multiplied four times, because
of the fourfold divisions of the seasons, and the fourfold divisions of
the world, will make the number forty.(1) Wherefore Moses and Elias, and
the Mediator Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, fasted forty days, because
in the time of this life, continence from the enticements of the body is
necessary. Forty years also did the people wander in the wilderness.(2)
Forty days the waters of the flood lasted.(3) Forty days after His resurrection
did the Lord converse with the disciples, persuading them of the reality(4)
of His risen body,(5) whereby He showed that in this life, "wherein
we are absent from the Lord"(6) (which the number forty, as has been
already said, mystically figures), we have need to celebrate the memory
of the Lord's Body, which we do in the Church, till He come.(7) Forasmuch,
then as our Lord descended to this life, and "the Word was made flesh,
that He might be delivered for our sins, and rise again for our justification,"(8)
Matthew followed the number forty; so that the one generation which there
exceeds that number, either does not hinder its predominance--just as those
thirty years do not hinder the perfect number of four hundred--or that
it even has this further meaning, that the Lord Himself, by the addition
of whom the forty-one is made up, so descended to this life to bear our
sins, as yet, by a peculiar and especial excellency, whereby He is in such
sense man, as to be also God, to be found to be excepted from this life.
For of Him only is that said, which never has been or shall be able to
be said of any holy man, however perfected in wisdom and righteousness, "The
Word was made Flesh."(9)

33. But Luke, who ascends up through the generations from the baptism
of the Lord, makes up the number seventy-seven, beginning to ascend from
our Lord Jesus Christ Himself through Joseph, and coming through Adam up
to God. And that is, because by this number is signified the abolition
of all sins, which takes place in Baptism. Not that the Lord Himself had
any thing to be forgiven Him in baptism, but that by His humility He set
forth its usefulness to us. And though that was only the baptism of John,
yet there appeared in it to outward sense the Trinity of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost; and hereby was consecrated the Baptism of Christ
Himself, whereby Christians were to be baptized. The Father in the voice
which came from heaven, the Son in the person of the Mediator Himself,
the Holy Ghost in the dove.(10)

34.
Now, why the number seventy-seven should contain all sins which are remitted
in Baptism,
there occurs this
probable reason, for that the number
ten implies the perfection of all righteousness, and blessedness, when
the creature denoted by seven(11) cleaves to the Trinity of the Creator;
whence also the Decalogue of the Law was consecrated in ten precepts. Now
the "transgression" of the number ten is signified by the number
eleven; and sin is known to be transgression, when a man, in seeking something "more," exceeds
the rule of justice. And hence the Apostle calls avarice "the root
of all evils."(12) And to the soul which goes a-whoring from God,
it is said, in the Person of the same Lord, "Thou wast in hope, if
thou didst depart from Me, that thou wouldest have something more." Because
the sinner then has in his transgression, that is, in his sin, regard to
himself alone--in that he wishes to gratify himself by some private good
of his own (whence they are blamed "who seek their own, not the things
which are Jesus Christ's;"(13) and charity is commended, "which
seeketh not her own"(14)); therefore, this number eleven, by which
transgression is signified, is multiplied, not ten times, but seven, and
so makes up seventy-seven. For transgression looks(15) not to the Trinity
of the Creator, but to the creature, that is, to the man himself, which
creature the number seven denotes. Three, because of the soul, in which
there(16) is a kind of image of the Trinity of the Creator (for it is in
the soul that man has been made after the image of God); and four, because
of the body. For the four elements(17) of which the body is made up are
known by all. And if any one know them not, he may easily remember, that
this body of the world, in which our bodies move along, has, so to say,
four principal parts, which even Holy Scripture is constantly making mention
of, East, and West, and North, and South. And forasmuch as sins are committed
either by the mind, as in the will only, or by the works of the body also,
and so visibly; therefore the Prophet Amos continually introduces(18) God
as threatening, and saying, "For three and four iniquities I will
not turn away," that is," I will not dissemble My wrath."(19)
Three, because of the nature of the soul; four, because of that of the
body; of which two, man consists.

35.
So, then, seven times eleven, that is, as has been explained, the transgression
of righteousness,
which
has regard only to the sinner himself,
make up the number seventy-seven, in which it is signified, that all sins
which are remitted in Baptism are contained. And hence it, is that Luke
ascends up through seventy-seven generations unto God, as showing that
man is reconciled unto God by the abolition of all sin. Hence the Lord
Himself saith to Peter, who asked Him how oft he ought to forgive a brother, "I
say not unto thee(1) seven times, but until seventy times and seven."(2)
Now, whatever else can be drawn out of these recesses and treasures of
God's mysteries by those who are more diligent and more worthy than I,
receive. Yet have I spoken according to my poor ability, as the Lord hath
aided and given me power, and as I best could, considering also the little
time I had. If any one of you be capable of anything further, let him knock
at Him from whom I too receive what I am able to receive and speak. But,
above all things, remember this; not to be disturbed by the Scriptures,
which you do not yet understand, nor be puffed up by what you do understand;
but what you do not understand, with submissions wait for, and what you
do understand, hold fast with charity.